ASP.NET MVC - Search Criteria as Route Parameter in stead of querystring - Illegal Characters

Question

I asked a previous question on how to optimize my search for SEO and users without JavaScript, and I figured out my answer by using RedirectToAction

However, in doing so, I've found a new issue that I need to resolve.

If I submit a search

"the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dogs"

(trying to mimic Google with the "quotes" for complete phrases)

The application blows up on me (YSOD)

Illegal characters in path.
Description: An unhandled exception occurred during the execution of the current web request. Please review the stack trace for more information about the error and where it originated in the code.

The url looks like this (Firefox)
http://localhost/search/"the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dogs"

I tried using Url.Encode but that didn't work either... the url looks like
http://localhost/search/%2522the%2bquick%2bbrown%2bfox%2bjumped%2bover%2bthe%2blazy%2bdogs%2522

and the error says

Server Error in '/' Application.
HTTP Error 400 - Bad Request.

It must be something very obvious that I'm missing. Exception Details: System.ArgumentException: Illegal characters in path.

Answer 1

Looking at the form in your previous question I would have expected searchTerm to be a query string parameter and not part of the route.

http://localhost/search?searchTerms=..

If you want search to be part the routes, you will have to setup the routing correctly to.

If you provide more of the stack trace or your routing configuration you may get a better answer. Hope this helps anyway.